This works, but it sure isn't intuitive. You could make this a lot easier.

For the record, I can't use this remote either. Almost every day it loses its connection to the hub and I have to power cycle the hub for it to regain it. The activities are also useless, as if my TV goes to sleep then the devices are out of sync and the process to fix it is cumbersome and annoying. I'd sooner just control the devices, but I can't assign the volume buttons to my receiver and control a device at the same time. Going back to my U1 until this gets sorted out, but that's the difference, I'm willing to give them that time rather than complain that everything is a failure right out the starting gate. You say this isn't your first kickstarter, and that may be so, but all your comments point to you not understanding how this works. If you don't want to deal with alpha bugs that get worked out in the weeks/months following an initial kickstarter shipment, stick to buying from BestBuy for your electronics.

Well with most devices having automatic sleep modes, I'm not sure why they'd want to copy Logitech in this capacity. As soon as my TV is out of sync with the remote, my wife/kids have no idea how to use the TV.

Nope, I used to have a Logitech remote, and presently have the SB U1. With the U1, my activities are just 'On' and I just press the home button to wake up my Chromecast, which turns on my TV via HDMI CEC, but that no longer seems to work with the X1. In any case, you're misunderstanding my request. It's due to the remote not being able to know what state the devices are in that replaying the activity over again would be better than being in an activity and needing to turn the activity off before being able to replay the activity start sequence again. So again, I don't need the remote/hub to know the state of the devices if I could click the 'Watch TV' activity again, which would wake up all the devices.

Have you tried the IR manual learning mode?

It's their first remote that operates in this way. I also have the U1, and while they do use the same app, the areas/experiences are entirely different. It looks like they tried to port some of the app functionality from the U1 to the X1, but for technical reasons many aspects of the X1 would have required a 'from the ground up' redevelopment. So again, there's only so much backer money, and between chip shortages and labor issues, be thankful you received it at all. A lot of other kickstarters defaulted for no other reason than just running out of backer money due entirely to external factors. So while you sit there with your armchair opinions, maybe take a minute to appreciate that you have no idea what circumstances led to this as a final product, and it may just be that it was either this or nothing. Over the next several months, the app experience is sure to improve, and once they start selling the X1 and start generating some actual revenue, I'd fully expect the app experience to progress even further, but for now it's not all that different than any other kickstarter I've ever received, frankly it's a lot better and less buggy than some I've received, and completely acceptable in my view for this phase of it's release. You're welcome to your opinion, but again, I don't think Kickstarter is for you if this is your attitude fresh out the starting gate.

Are your wifi channels combined, or separated? I've found that devices expecting 2.4GHz only have a lot of problems if the AP is configured to have 2.4 & 5 combined as a single AP.

I'm on a Pixel 6 Pro and had no issues setting everything up and applying custom config to my activities. The app isn't the most glamorous thing, but keep in mind this was JUST released from a Kickstarter, and the first portion of it is basically to get the devices manufacturered and out the door, then comes the polish. If you don't like being part of a sort of angel investor group that gets first access to a product before general consumer release, then ya Kickstarter isn't really for you.